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My World - and Welcome to It

James Thurber is a masterful writer, humorist, and creator of enduring characters: Walter Mitty and the Lemming, included herein, have a permanent place in our culture. These 22 complete stories from Part I of My World (first published in 1942) reveal the full range of Thurber's genius, from his fanciful analysis of Shakespeare's Macbeth to his playful rendition of marital conflict and ultimately, his serious consideration of murders unsolved.

The Thirteen Clocks

The Thirteen Clocks is James Thurber's enduring story of life in a castle where time stands still on every clock at 10 minutes to five. The Duke of the castle ignores time and pays no attention to temperature either. He is a wicked Duke who has hands cold enough to choke a bull. The only warmth he understands is the warm hands of Princess Saralinda, his fair niece, whom he cherishes and protects from suitors.

The fifth volume in CSA Word's massively popular complete and unabridged ‘Short Stories’ collection is bound to please. With something for everyone this collection of classic stories read by only the best-suited and most established readers will delight the ears as a vintage wine excites the gullet; The Vintage Collection is audible gold. Features eye-catching typographical series design.

Selected Shorts: Timeless Classics

Selected Shorts is an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors. The readings are recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. The Selected Shorts radio series is a co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio, and is heard on public radio stations nationwide.

From wild and wacky to knee-slapping, laugh-out-loud fun, these humorous tales represent some of the best of recent seasons of the hit public radio series Selected Shorts. Comedian Wyatt Cenac gives a killer performance of Simon Rich’s hilarious tale of woe from the point of view of a condom in a young man’s wallet. Alec Baldwin gives a delightful over-the-top performance of James Thurber’s wonderfully silly classic tale of the day everybody in a small Ohio town thought the dam broke.

Babette's Feast and Sorrow-Acre

"Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: give me leave to do my utmost." This line from "Babette's Feast" lends itself to both of the stories in this audio collection, which tell of unbreakable human spirit and total commitment to life choices. "Babette's Feast," now an award-winning film, takes a humorous look at a pure-spirited community in which love, lost youth, self-denial, and creative urges contribute to making the right choices. And "Sorrow-Acre," the most anthologized of Isak Dinesen's stories, challenges the most profound choice of all. Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress Colleen Dewhurst's warm, sensitive interpretation reveals the subtle beauty of Dinesen's prose.

Of All Things!

The titles in this delightful collection of essays include: "The Social Life of the Newt", "Coffee, Megg and Ilk, Please", "When Genius Remained Your Humble Servant", "The Tortures of Week-End Visiting", "Gardening Notes", "Lesson Number One", "Thoughts on Fuel Saving", "Not According To Hoyle", "From Nine To Five", "Turning Over A New Ledger Leaf", "A Piece of Roast Beef", "The Community Masque As A Substitute For War" and "Call For Mr. Kenworthy".

A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Nonfiction

Terry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of listeners the world over with his best-selling Discworld series - but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer's research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's nonfiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important).

The Humorous Short Stories of Mark Twain

The master storyteller amuses and entertains with a collection of stories which includes: "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg", "The Double Barrelled Detective Story", "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", "The Million Dollar Bank Note", "Benton and Mills", "A Tale", "Cannibalism in the Cars", "The Stolen White Elephant", "The Man Who Put Up at Gadsby's", "The Good Little Boy", "The Bad Little Boy", and "Baker's Blue Jay Yarn".

Selected Shorts: Readers & Writers

A boon for booklovers, this audio set features funny, fantastical and poignant stories about people with unique and passionate connections to the written word.

Tony Roberts reads a hilarious Walter R. Brooks story about how Ed - a talking horse - became a voracious reader of adventure tales and mysteries. In a story by Italo Calvino, read by John Shea, a man tries to make the most of his beach holiday by reading and making love at the same time.

The P.G. Wodehouse Collection

This title includes not only the entire audiobook of Right Ho, Jeeves, but also all of the P.G. Wodehouse titles in the current Classic Tales library. It also includes a Jeeves short story only available in the collection: "Extricating Young Gussie". The complete running time is over 15 hours. All titles have been remastered, and have never sounded better!

The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery

In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs - including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey - landed in France to conduct a secret mission. Armed with truckloads of inflatable tanks, a massive collection of sound-effects records, and more than a few tricks up their sleeves, their job was to create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience.

Selected Shorts is an award-winning, one-hour program featuring readings of classic and new short fiction, recorded live at New York's Symphony Space. One of the most popular series on the airwaves, this unique show is hosted by Isaiah Sheffer and produced for radio by Symphony Space and WNYC Radio.

Nobody's Fool

Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long-estranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps. With its sly and uproarious humor and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool is storytelling at its most generous.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

This now classic book revealed Flannery O’Connor as one of the most original and provocative writers to emerge from the South. Her apocalyptic vision of life is expressed through grotesque, often comic situations in which the principal character faces a problem of salvation: the grandmother, in the title story, confronting the murderous Misfit; a neglected four-year-old boy looking for the Kingdom of Christ in the fast-flowing waters of the river; General Sash, about to meet the final enemy.

Miranda Hart's Joke Shop

A comedy for BBC Radio 2 starring Miranda Hart (Hyperdrive, Absolutely Fabulous, Jack Dee's Lead Balloon) and written by Miranda Hart and Tony Roche, with additional material by Richard Hurst and Leisa Rea.

Publisher's Summary

"My father was in the hospital and every night when I visited him, I read aloud to him. James Thurber. And one night he said, 'You really should do that on your show,' and I said, 'Dad, it’s a television newscast. I’d love to, but how could it possibly fit?' And he said, 'How often have I ever suggested anything for your shows?' And I remembered that he never had. But I also reminded him that there were things like copyrights and bills, to which he said, 'Try it. You never know.'

"I began to read Thurber once a week on television, and continue to do so whenever and wherever I can. I’m happy to say this has sparked a mini-revival, which I hope erupts into a full-scale newfound appreciation for a man whose writings are nearly perfect. He did not intend them to be read aloud, but they are ideally suited for the task: clean, economical, vivid, full of crashes and thuds - and silences, too. And for that matter, they make wonderful tributes to memories - memories of my dad, and Rosemary Thurber’s." Keith Olbermann, May 19, 2011

Stories included in The James Thurber Audio Collection: "There’s No Place Like Home", "The Bear Who Let It Alone", "The Greatest Man in the World", "The Night the Ghost Got In", "I Went to Sullivant", "The Unicorn in the Garden", "How to Relax While Broadcasting", "The Tortoise and the Hare", "A Box to Hide In", "The Owl Who Was God", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox", "The Moth and the Star", "The Dog That Bit People", "The Topaz Cufflinks Mystery", "The Little Girl and the Wolf", "The Macbeth Murder Mystery", "The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble", "The Night the Bed Fell", "Sex Ex Machina", "The Scotty Who Knew Too Much", "The Car We Had to Push", and "The Peacelike Mongoose".

Thrurber's oddities are thoroughly enjoyable, but may have been even more so if most had been presented by a less frenetic narrator. Olbermann did, however, have his moments, and the way he came to this was very touching...

I had downloaded this book some time ago, and kept it as a 'buffer', to listen to when one audiobook ran out and there was no quick replacement. When I finally got to listen to it, I was pleasantly surprised. Olberman does a masterful job, and gets things out of the reading that truly adds to the enjoyment of these Thurber classics.

I remember James Thurber from high school when we did a play called "The Unicorn in the Garden". I enjoyed that so much I read some other short stories he had written like, "The Night The bed Fell" and the different fables he wrote. All of these and more are included here and for the most part they really hold up today.

Keith Olbermann's introduction explains that he read these to his dying father in the hospital and his father told him he should do this for a living. So this selection is lovingly done with his father in mind.

I can't recommend this enough. It will have you falling on the floor laughing!

More Thurber in audiobook form should cause jubilation, and the 23 selections are among the most beloved of the author's writing (the cartoons are missing, of course). Keith Olbermann is therefore to be commended for undertaking the project.

One wishes, however, that the broadcaster's delivery was not so melodramatically urgent. Hard-sell punch was perfect for ESPN, and less so for his evening news/talk cable shows. With Thurber, it often creates the kind of cognitive dissonance that would occur if one was shaken awake by someone screaming, "I love you!"

One is pleased to find Audible also offers "My World and Welcome to It," read by a less-histrionic John Cullum, who allows the wit to sneak up on you rather than being shot from a cannon.

I wish the contents of anthologies were available in listings. Because unless a reviewer fills you in, you are buying a pig in a poke. This selection contains perhaps my favorite Thurber story, "The Night the Ghost Got In," but mostly consists of minor and obscure pieces. " The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is rightly considered iconic, but is pathetic rather than funny. Olberman's reading is enthusiastic but not that of a professional actor. Thurber doesn't need tons of expression to get across; his language is enough. And he has peculiar ideas about how Thurber's characters should sound. Ohio cops shouldn't sound like they grew up in Brooklyn.

Olbermann's own respect and appreciation for the times and tales of James Thurber and the vibrancy of his narration bring the words of James Thurber to life. Anyone in need of an escape to a simpler time will enjoy the masterful storytelling and lol fun to be heard here.

The mother in the ghost story was so clearly illuminated through the entire vocalization ... nearly perfectly stereotyped franticly anxious maternal figure. It's an entirely different archetype from what I perceive Keith Olbermann's to be ... but it's obvious he was drawing from someone he's known!

Have you listened to any of Keith Olbermann’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've listened to a few pieces by Keith Olbermann before ... he is a tremendous narrator and voice actor, and this talent really seemed to take off, be highlighted, by this vocal performance of Thurber's works ... it was ... the beginning, and I think one of his piece de resistances.

Any additional comments?

Though not written for narration, it is perfectly suited for it; I don't imagine anyone better than Keith Olbermann, himself a native New Yorker and broadcaster/media talent of a century, as was Thurber, could have brought this to life in this precise, exactly right kind of way.